ISLAMABAD, Feb 5: Health authorities are conducting tests on 12 workers from a farm where the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was detected in poultry, a federal health ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

Authorities confirmed on Monday an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu at a poultry farm on the outskirts of Karachi, the second case in four days in the city.

Twelve workers from the farm had been isolated and were being tested by a team from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the ministry spokesman said.

“They have been isolated and now a WHO team is there and is going to take another sample. Preliminary samples were taken and found negative but the WHO wants to confirm it,” said the spokesman, Orya Maqbool Jan Abbasi.

The H5N1 virus was first detected in Pakistan in early 2006. Pakistan’s first human case, which resulted in a death, was confirmed in December.—Reuters